Obama to Israelis: Put yourselves in the Palestinians’ shoes

posted at 5:01 pm on March 21, 2013 by Allahpundit

To be scrupulously fair, the tone of the clip isn’t true to the tone of the entire speech. The Standard has the transcript. Most of what preceded this was as florid a valentine to Israel and Zionism as a U.S. president has ever delivered. It had to be in order to prepare his audience for the “put yourself in their shoes” passage, which of course was the real point of the speech. He couldn’t convince Netanyahu to restart the peace process with the Palestinians so now he’s going to try to convince his Israeli constituents to pressure him into doing so. (Now might be an opportune moment for this pitch.) And of course the media is breathless about it. His other landmark speech in the Middle East, in Cairo in 2009, totally changed the Middle East for the better, didn’t it? I’m sure this one will be just as significant.

Elliott Abrams responds by reminding O that there’s a long, long list of Middle Eastern nations that need tutoring on empathy and Israel’s not near the top:

In his remarks today he pictured an Arab world, and a Palestinian political system, yearning for peace with Israel through negotiated compromises. This ignores the vast ocean of anti-Semitism in the Arab world, and the inculcation of hatred of Jews and Israel in generation after generation of Arabs—including Palestinians. And it ignores the rising tide of Islamism in the region, which threatens to engulf all those political figures who would really like a compromise peace. The Arab world Obama described is a place far more desirous of, and far closer to, peace with Israel than the one Israelis actually see around them.

Obama urged Israelis to push their own government toward peace: “Speaking as a politician, I can promise you this: political leaders will not take risks if the people do not demand that they do. You must create the change that you want to see.” This may be taken as a swipe at the new Israeli government or at Netanyahu, but even if it is not he is again addressing it to the wrong audience. Israelis cannot “create the change they want to see” in the hearts of Palestinians, Egyptians, and other Arabs. “Now is the time for the Arab World to take steps toward normalized relations with Israel,” Obama said. And he is right, but does anyone want to take bets on how likely that is?

Here’s the one passage in Obama’s speech that I can’t get over. Literally no one, except maybe George W. Bush, still believes the following is true; it would have been a tough sell at any time, but at the moment it’s mind-boggling.

Four years ago, I stood in Cairo in front of an audience of young people. Politically, religiously, they must seem a world away. But the things they want – they’re not so different from you. The ability to make their own decisions; to get an education and a good job; to worship God in their own way; to get married and have a family. The same is true of the young Palestinians that I met in Ramallah this morning, and of young Palestinians who yearn for a better life in Gaza.

Which Egyptian “young people” does he mean? The ~5% of the country that’s liberal and reform-minded and that quickly disappeared from political view after Mubarak was deposed? Or the majority of the population that says they want to tear up the treaty with Israel and then elected a guy known for demanding that Palestinians be returned to “the entire land of Palestine”? If you want a truly honest, bracing explanation of what’s wrong with the peace process, skip O’s shpiel below and follow that last link. It’s all there: Screeching demonization of the “bloodsuckers” plus the ember of Palestinian revanchism that’ll burn forever, whether a “peace” deal is ever struck or not. It’s very, very O-like (O for Obama and Oprah) to think that a speech cajoling one side to understand their neighbor a little better might help resolve a zero-sum game over the most famously disputed territory in the world. One side insists on a right of return (and always will, even after they’re granted their own state) and the other side insists they can’t have it. Here’s to lasting peace.

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As always, one must listen carefully to what leadership says, or fails to say, in analyzing current affairs. During his trip to Israel, President Obama said, “It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of her own.” Of course, as people of good will we would like everyone to have the right of self-determination and God-given liberty, but we also have to ask ourselves what has been done to establish the circumstances necessary for that. It’s been observed that a Palestinian child cannot grow up “in a state of her own” because of Palestinian leaders’ decisions.

There seems to be nothing on the horizon to change the mindset of those who would raise Palestinian children to hate and be intolerant of Jews, Christians, and other “infidels.” Bottom line: until that changes and until the Palestinian people become genuine partners in peace with Israel, little movement towards peace can be made. This is tragic for all, including those Palestinian children being indoctrinated. I hope our President understands this and could acknowledge it so the public could better understand the conflict. We can’t be naive to the causes of this centuries-old plight, and we mustn’t fail to ignore the one-sided effort to finally bring peace to Israel.

DId he ask the Palestinians to put themselves in the shoes of the Israelis? No – I’m shocked (not). No guts.

And to force Netanyahu to apologize to the Turks – everyone thinks they’re buying time but appeasement doesn’t work. Of course, if you believe appeasement doesn’t work, you have to be willing to DO something else.

Of interest, this is a partial email that I received from the Jerusalem Prayer Team:

Shalom from Jerusalem and the Jerusalem World Center:

President Obama spoke yesterday here in Jerusalem to a carefully selected audience. Many Israelis are sarcastically greeting each other with “Happy Obama Day” as the Passover approaches. There is no doubt of the message Mr. Obama is sending. I know this is true because I am on the board of Ariel University, and Ariel students were not allowed to attend. Mr. Obama believes the school is built on Palestinian land (it is built in Hebron where Joshua and Caleb are buried; it’s hard to be more Jewish than that!).

President Obama meets with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas under a photo of the murderous terrorist Yasser Arafat

He refused to go to the Kotel (the Western Wall) or to speak at the Knesset. But he found plenty of time for the Palestinians, standing under a photo of the murderous terrorist Yasser Arafat to address them. In his speech to Israeli university students, President Obama said that Israel must make peace with the Palestinians if it is to ensure its survival and long-term viability as a homeland for the Jewish people. Of course, this ignores the reality that you cannot make peace with people who want you dead so badly they are willing to kill their own children to kill yours, too.

“The Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and justice must … be recognized,” Mr. Obama said. “Put yourself in their shoes—look at the world through their eyes. It is not fair that a Palestinian child cannot grow up in a state of her own, and lives with the presence of a foreign army that controls the movements of her parents every single day. Israelis must recognize that continued settlement activity is counterproductive to the cause of peace and that an independent Palestine must be viable—that real borders will have to be drawn.”

There are no such things as Palestinians. These are Arabs that squatted on Israel’s land & were strong armed by other world powers into ceding that land. As always, these squatters will not stop until all of it is theirs.